Tale Of Rabid Raccoon And Murderous Vegetarian Jogger Wows Journalism World.

A Bangor, Maine Daily News article about a rabid
raccoon attacking a jogger is a literary masterpiece.

By all accounts Bangor (Maine) Daily News reporter Alex Acquisto hit it out of the ballpark recently when she wrote a local story about a jogger being attacked by a rabid raccoon.

Rabid raccoons happen all the time but the first two paragraphs of Acquisto's excellently-written piece is something I will always cherish:  

Here it is:

HOPE, Maine - While jogging on a familiar, overgrown wooded trail near her home on a recent warm afternoon, Rachel Borch thought to herself, 'what a beautiful day.'

Little did she know she was about to be attacked by a rabid raccoon she would end up killing with her bare hands."

The story goes on to tell us about our normally mild-mannered vegetarian jogger drowning the offending raccoon in a puddle.

It's a grim but absolutely glorious read, so you ought to get past the survey you have to answer at the Bangor Daily News and read Acquisto's article.

Bangor Daily News reporter Alex Acquisto proved herself
as one of the best writers and journalists out there.

The raccoon bit Borch on the thumb and wouldn't let go. "Imagine the Tasmanian devil," Borch told Acquisto.

Acquisto's article has sentences like this: "Connecting the dots quickly, Borch, then on her knees, dragged the still biting raccoon, which was scratching frantically at her hands and arms, into the puddle."

In any event, Acquisto's story went viral. Esquire magazine called it "a literary masterpiece."  Someone else tweeted that the lede of her story belongs in every journalism textbook.

By the way, Esquire's analysis of Acquisto's piece is also very much worth a read.

For the record, Acquisto tells us Borch has had rabies and tetanus shots and is doing well.

Even better, a journalistic, literary star is born.